hidden camera shows

carlita · Nov 14, 2003

i'm just curious what you guys think about this stuff. i was watching a hidden camera show on one of the spanish TV stations in houston last week and as bad as i think the ones we have on regular US television are, this was just unreal. they let the situation go for so long without letting the poor guy in on it that he actually started physically fighting with one of the other people. i kept trying to make out at least some little bits of what they were saying but there were so many people all yelling at each other at once i couldn't really figure it out. i just kept sitting there going "tell the guy already you crazy freaks!! you're gonna get the piss beaten out of you!"

i just don't really think it's worth the risk involved. and i'm sure some of the stuff is staged, but other times it clearly isn't... and you never know how people are going to react.

i admit, sometimes i think they're funny, but mostly only when they thoroughly confuse someone or something. when they seriously upset people (like by telling them their wedding dress has been ruined only hours before their wedding, or accusing them of sexual harrassment and then pretending to fire them, etc.) that's just not funny to me. that's plain mean.

maybe i feel that way cause i'm already an incredibly anxious person and something like that could really mess me up. :?

how do you think you'd react if you were ever duped by one of those shows? do you think you'd get mad about it after the fact or do you think you could shrug it off and laugh along with everyone else?

Chase · Nov 14, 2003

It seems like some you can tell that some are doing it in good taste and attempting to be harmless (these are funny and I enjoy them), but some others really seem to be doing as much as possible to really disturb people and can take it way too far.

So, I guess it depends on the situation for me. I think they can be REALLY entertaining, but I have no interest in seeing people get hurt (physically or emotionally) for my entertainment.

Jeff Canes · Nov 14, 2003

I do not watch them veay often. But every time I fly Delta it seems they run hide video show from Quebec. They dub them over with music and a laugh tank. This is good because the originals audio is in Quebecist and I speak American

Dew · Nov 14, 2003

i think their funny ... i like to watch Punked on MTV :lol:

... i wouldnt get mad afterwards if it happened to me, i'd laugh along with the rest. but im sure my loving husband wouldnt play a trick on me :no smile:

mrsid99 · Nov 14, 2003

Gotta agree with Carlita and Chase...funny is funny and mean is mean.
There's one exception I can think of though, many years back in the UK they had a candid camera type show and I can't remember exactly what they were trying to pull on this big burly guy but he just slowly turned to the "host" and laid him out flat with a beautiful straight right!
Had to be the most viewed stunt they ever pulled.

terri · Nov 14, 2003

Yep, there is a LOT of psychology going on with these kinds of shows...the psychology of the people pulling the stunt and how far they are willing to go before they risk just angering their unwitting victim....and sometimes you gotta wonder whether or not they even make an effort to read the psychology of the victim, and let that guide them as to how far a stunt should go.

If they're going for nothing but shock schlock, then I would imagine they'll push that envelope pretty far, and let their "host" take a punch in the name of entertainment.

I can recall laughing my ass off at some of these stunts, but when they go wrong, like what mrsid just described, then the whole thing can smell bad and it's not funny anymore.